Analysis: All Quiet On The Western Front

War causes a loss of innocence and brings a soldier further away from their home life that they once loved as a child. In the book “All Quiet on the Western Front” the author Erich Remarque uses symbols to prove that this is how soldiers lives change after they return from war. Remarque uses the symbols of potato pancakes, horses and the earth to exhibit that war takes away the feeling of comfort that was once associated with home, while bringing on new responsibilities and a loss of innocence.

Mahatma Gandhi, a renowned political and spiritual leader, once said that, “I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary, the evil it does is permanent.” Presume you see two men in a heated argument and one of them is about to attack the other, you take a rock and throw it at him and knock him out. On one hand it is a good thing that you prevented the attack but on the other hand you used violence yourself, and there is no doubt that you would not hesitate to use it again. The good that came from the violence that you used lasted for a short time, but the punishment that you get for doing this lasts for a long time. Imperialism of rivalries and nationalism were two of the main reasons that most

It’s no surprise that soldiers will more-than-likely never come home the same. Those who have not served do not often think of the torment and negative consequences that the soldiers who make it out of war face. Erich Remarque was someone who was able to take the torment that he faced after his experience in World War I and shed light on the brutality of war. Remarque was able to illustrate the psychological problems that was experienced by men in battle with his best-selling novel All Quiet on the Western Front (Hunt). The symbolism used in the classic anti-war novel All Quiet on the Western Front is significant not only for showing citizens the negative attributes of war, but also the mental, physical, and emotional impact that the vicious war had on the soldiers.

In Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front, soldiers at the front have a better idea than civilians of the true nature of war because they have experienced the war while civilians have only read about it or listened to government propaganda. Remarque is trying to tell us that only those who experience the war can understand how awful war truly is.

Paul’s books symbolize the shadow of war through the horrid violence limiting his connections to humanity. Paul’s book illustrate how the impacts by war stole his innocence and removed all his feelings to life when he tries to reconnect to the books to give sentimental meaning and revival. For instance, Paul enters his room filled with books of his childhood where he lived before the war. He turns to his books for rebirth to to once again “ feel the same

One of the best, if not the best war novels that is Erich Remarque's “All Quiet on the

In the novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque, starting with the epigraph of the book, defaces the didactic tips that the war burdens Bäumer with, "This book is to be neither an accusation nor a confession, and least of all an adventure, for death is not an adventure to those who stand face to face with it. It will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped shells, were destroyed by the war" (1). A variety of books are written about wars, aggression, and the vast majority of them are full of patriotic pathos and romantic passages. As the novel's raconteur and protagonist, Bäumer is the focal figure in All Quiet on the Western Front and fills in as the mouthpiece for Remarque's reflections about war. All through the novel, Bäumer's internal identity is stood out from the way the war drives him to act and feel. His recollections of the time before the war demonstrate that he was at one time an altogether different man from the miserable fighter who now portrays the novel. Bäumer is a caring and naive schoolboy; before the war, he adored his family and composed poetry. Witnessing the awfulness of the war and the tension it instigates, Bäumer, as different warriors, figures out how to separate his psyche from his sentiments, keeping his feelings under control with a specific end goal to save his rational soundness and survive. With his epigraph, Remarque immediately separates

Foremost, it is imperative to note that many soldiers fighting in WWI were around the age of 20 if not younger. This is crucial when the fact that many studies have shown the human brain does not fully develop until the age of 25 is considered. This means that many of the soldiers were still immature and gravely unprepared for the horrors of war. Being thrown into the war requires them to mature quickly and leave their youth behind. Remarque depicts this in his piece where he states, “We are youth not youth any longer…The first bomb, the first explosion, burst in our hearts. We are cut off from activity, from striving, from progress. We believe in such things no longer, we believe in war” (Remarque 46). Nonetheless, the only thing they believed in betrayed them in the end. With the innovation of new forms of weaponry in warfare such as mustard gas, tanks, planes, machine guns, etc. and

Every person feels lost at least once in his or her lifetime, whether it is physically lost in a crowd or psychologically lost in an abyss of unanswered questions about life. To be able to fit in properly is difficult in this dysfunctional society where conflict and ignorance linger in people’s lives. From the past, World War I emerged from one of these many conflicts and disrupted the lives of many men as they were lured to abandon their lives and fight. This group of men who have difficulty fitting back into the society after war is known as the “lost generation”. Similarly, Eric Maria Remarque’s novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, tells the story of the generation of young men who feel alienated and lost in society after participating in the war. As they begin thinking about their post-war life, the soldiers realize how war transforms their generation into a group of individuals who have no stable life to readjust to when they return; the horrors of war disrupt their lives psychologically and ruin their innocent youth, making it impossible to return to their past lives or build upon their dream life.

Soldiers go home and don't know how to act around their families, and the people they grew up with. They have seen so much death and violence that they don't know what a lifestyle or friendship is. Life is very different for them. On page 165 Paul says, "I am young, I am twenty years old; yet I know nothing of life but despair death, fear, and fatuous superficiality cast over an abyss of sorrow." Remarque adds these thoughts by Paul throughout the book.

Paul tried to remember his passion that once made him happy, but it is like he got lost along the way to feel those happy memories again. Instead, soldiers learned to just distract and disconnect their minds from emotional feelings. During a situation towards the beginning of the novel, involve Paul and his friends visiting a former class friend who had a leg amputation. Muller wants his boots, and is seen as being completely insensitive but Paul doesn’t think of him as that. No, instead he sees the whole picture of the situation although Paul reflects that war causes a soldier to isolate oneself from emotions which allow you to grieve, sympathize, and feel hurt.

In Erich Maria Remarque’s novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, human nature is the only abstract periphery between belligerent barbarism and justifiable violence. Through the insipid bombardments that rained shells over the Germans’ heads and noxious implementation of mustard gas, Remarque dexterously misleads the reader into believing that he fights in an apathetic war where all remnants of human nature and identity have been destroyed with the introduction of trench warfare. Through Paul Baumer’s eyes, Remarque identifies war as an artificial construct devoid of human identity and any subsequent emotions until the first bombardment, the first glimpse Baumer has of the unfettered abominations of war. After the shrieking of artillery shells ceased, it was replaced by the numbing scream of injured horses. Paul described this abhorrent noise as “the moaning of the world…, wild with anguish, filled with terror, and groaning” (Remarque 62), the first emotionally provocative scene in the novel. As if the description of the noise did not suffice to pique the reader, Remarque continues, “The belly of one is ripped open, the guts trail out. He becomes tangled in them and falls…” (Remarque 63). At this instant, Remarque sheds the obscure layer of superficiality and reveals the tatters of human nature and identity still exist even in most anguish conditions of comeradeship, sympathy, contrition, and selflessness.

The novel All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque, is story of the fictional character Paul Baumer and his troop Troop 9 as they battle in World War I on the Western Front for Germany. This novel differs from most war novels in that it does not portray the men as valiant soldiers protecting their country. The way that the story is told strips away the romanticized view warfare and portrays the raw emotions that come with being on the front lines of a battle. As both Paul Baumer’s life and the battle progress, Paul’s values, along with those of the other soldiers, evolve until they culminate in Baumer’s own passing.

The fighting in the war resulted in the soldiers losing their humanity and suffering from PTSD. In Remarque’s novel, Paul and his comrades experience traumatic events, which result into them feeling no concern and compassion. Before entering war, Paul says, “By the animal instinct that is awakened in us we are led and protected. It is not conscious; it is far quicker, much more sure, less fallible, than consciousness” (Remarque 56). The horror in the war causes the soldiers to lose their humanity and slowly become

Yet another example of the brutalization and dehumanization of the soldiers caused by the war occurs during Paul’s leave. On leave, Paul decides to visit his hometown. While there, he finds it difficult to discuss the war and his experiences with anyone. Furthermore, Paul struggles to fit in at home: “I breathe deeply and say over to myself:– ‘You are at home, you are at home.’ But a sense of strangeness will not leave me; I cannot feel at home amongst these things. There is my mother, there is my sister, there my case of butterflies, and there the mahogany piano – but I am not myself there. There is a distance, a